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13 posts from February 2008

February 29, 2008

Continuing on from my post earlier this week, Marketing Content vs. Sales Content, I was speaking with several colleagues about the transition of prospects from marketing to sales and what's needed to make that transition a seamless, successful process.

The cold truth is that there's an interruption point, a definite cut-off, from where marketing stops and sales begins. The two departments are often operated separately, despite rhetoric about "connecting" them.

I'm reminded of the commonly uttered lament "throwing leads over the wall to sales." Instead of establishing continuity where the relationship begun by marketing is continued along by sales without a blip, the conversations sales pursues can bear little resemblance to the prospect's experiences-to-date with a company. Which stalls the process while the prospect adjusts, or worse, loses interest.

For those who want to argue this idea, think about why salespeople only spend 36% of their time in "sales" activities with prospects. What are they doing the rest of the time?

Research and administration and meeting preparation to develop sales tools they can use.

A lot of which is reinventing the wheel, given marketing's activities. But until marketing sees that sales' content needs are different than theirs, they will continue to think that supplying salespeople with the same marketing materials they use for nurturing means they've given them sales tools.

Sales needs a better set-up.

Marketing efforts help gain awareness, expose expertise, drive educational activities and get your target market raising their hands and interacting with your company in relation to solving problems. In a complex B2B situation, sales needs to actually have direct conversations with them that persuade buying decisions. Conversations that should build from those initial experiences & interactions that prospect has already had with your company. Sales needs to continue the "flow," moving the prospect farther downstream in their buying process.

Think about it as a "play book." Marketing initiates the play, but without sales to complete it, there's no score in the game.

When both departments operate distinctly, you have "sales interruptus"—a disconnect, or stalling point while sales regroups and initiates their own process.

Marketing has the materials and the brand knowledge. Sales has the front-line feedback that can help tune those materials and knowledge into conversations. When marketing and sales come together, the tools created transform the transition process to a smooth exchange. Not to mention that the more time your sales force spends with your target market, the higher your customer acquisition ratios.

As an example of a valid sales tool, think about a case study. Those have conversation potential out the wazoo. Arm your salespeople with a story about a customer experience similar to the prospect's and the knowledge about why it's important to that company in that industry. (health care is different than financial services; and a VP is different than an LOB manager) Then you have a conversational transition tool.

The actual case study may be provided later for the specific details the prospect can mull over at their leisure, but the "story" the salesperson tells will build report and empathy. Tying that story in with marketing campaigns the prospect has participated in will also support the previous experiences they've had with your company. This type of sales tool will eliminate the interruption point by putting your salespeople into the game immediately upon hand off.

February 26, 2008

According to the American Marketing Association, 50% to 80% of marketing content goes unused by sales. Given that Sirius Decisions research reports that 82% of executives say sales reps are unprepared for meetings, there's an obvious disconnect.

There's also an obvious (if not, it should be) reason for this. Marketing content is (or should be) focused on generating leads and sales content needs to help leads make the final purchase decision. They are focused on different stages of the buyer's journey.

In the beginning of the journey, buyers are interested in gaining knowledge about the problems they're facing, exploring options and assessing possible solutions. More and more of this is being done without "sales" interactions. The Internet gives buyers access to more information than they've ever had before. By the time they get to a sales conversation, they probably know as much or more about your products than your sales reps.

However, the decision stage is critical. Salespeople need to be able to have conversations that seamlessly connect from where the lead transitioned off the marketing content. The focus shifts. In the final stages, the buyer is evaluating the company—assessing viability, and working relationships, and partner value add, and deciding how much they trust you.

If marketing is providing sales with the content they're using to generate attention and educate leads, no wonder it doesn't get used by sales. It's not what they need. Sales needs conversational toolkits loaded with the tools and information that helps them extend the dialogue in the stage the buyer is in.

Since marketing's job is to expose your company's expertise and the value you'll bring to the table beyond the lead's in-house resources, sales needs materials that help them provide the personal validation that what marketing has told them is true.

In addition to the lead's activity, demographic and psychographic profile, sales needs the following resources that tie the earlier stages of the marketing process to the end stages of the sales process. The conversational toolkit may include:

value propositions

campaign-based FAQs

conversational outlines for problem/solution scenarios

conversational scripts for features/benefits

And all of the above are customer focused—not product oriented. Marketing cannot just reload lead generation and transitional content into the sales portal/system and expect that to be the end of it.

Sales content deserves to be created just for sales conversations. And it's not a one-time thing. Just like marketing content evolves, so does sales content. In order to tune sales content, it's imperative that marketing get feedback, monitor content use and pay attention to what's working for sales and either fix or eliminate what's not.

In fact, marketing should treat sales content like a campaign, paying the same attention to the metrics of sales force attention as they do to lead generation and nurturing campaigns.

He points out how people thirst for something new and different. But he also wisely takes issue with trying for mass appeal when we need to focus on meeting our customers where they are ready, willing and able to participate.

"We have to interact with our customers and potential customers where they are
or are likely to be. Let’s say there are 50 million people with MySpace
profiles. In a nation with 300 million people, that means that 250 million
don’t. Which group has your customers, the ones on or off MySpace?

At the same time, you would say that 50 million people are a lot. I agree. As
I am writing this in the middle of the afternoon, nearly 70,000 videos had been
uploaded today. Which of those 50 million are going to see your one or two
uploaded last week?"

What struck me is that last sentence. I guess the thought came to me because I used an article written by Gladwell in 2004 as the basis for my post yesterday. The ideas and the way they were explained made sense and added clarity – even 4 years later.

But, people seem to be activated by date, like good ideas expire or should be "used by March 22nd" to have validity. So is something “new” because you’ve never seen it before or because of the date it’s written/posted? Is it more valid just because it "looks" new?

The speed and evolution of technology has shoved us forward at a dizzying pace. There's a constant scramble to have the latest and greatest version of everything. But here are a few things I'm curious about:

Are there really that many new ideas out there, or is it just the way we're talking about them?

Is your website outdated if you haven't posted anything new to it for two weeks? A month?

If you "freshen" up an older article and republish it with a new date, does that mean it's got more appeal than the older version?

I agree with Chris, by the way. I think we need to gather more insights about our customers and audiences and meet them on their turf (intellectually, digitally and physically), framing ideas in meaningful ways that are relevant to them. The more narrow we can get our segmentation, the closer we can get to that.

Seth Godin's new book, Meatball Sundae, talks about focusing on the reachable. Which is all about relevance when you get right down to it. Telling stories to people who have given you permission to interact with them because you're delivering something they perceive as valuable.

So, if content does have an expiration date, then it becomes even more imperative for you to get that content to the right people - quickly. If content is only considered new for an hour, day, week or month, then relevance is going to determine it's ability to catch attention before it's considered "old" news.

This means that our ability to know our customers and audiences is critical and getting more so every day.

February 20, 2008

Howard Moskowitz developed something called the plural nature of perfection, which he discovered when working with Pepsi to determine the absolutely perfect amount of sweetness for the beverage company. What he discovered was that there wasn't just one perfect degree of sweetness. Perfection depended on who you asked.

Moving along, he was contacted by Campbell's to help their Prego brand of pasta sauce compete more effectively against Ragu. So, taking what he'd learned from the Pepsi project, he came up with 45 varieties of sauce and asked people across the country to try between 8 and 10 of them in an hour and rate them from 1—100.

What he learned this time validated his assumption that there wouldn't be an overall winner. The other thing he found was that patterns emerged showing him 3 definitive segments of preference—plain, spicy or extra chunky.

Maskowitz developed a computer program to show him the perfect recipe for each type of sauce. However, when he looked at the impact on the other segments, he saw that focusing on the plain sauce would adversely impact the folks who liked the spicy or chunky sauces. Same thing, to varying degrees, if he focused on either spicy or chunky.

Do you see where this is going?

Personalization and marketing segmentation come in, well, different flavors for different groups of people or individuals. If you only use data and intelligence that speaks to one segment of your lead or customer base, you'll probably create a disconnect with others. And, trying to format your messaging to meet the needs of all segments will probably cause more disconnects than the engagement you hope to achieve.

I thought this story was a great illustration of why segmentation matters. Different things matter to different people. Whether it be by industry, role, opportunity or the challenges each of them is addressing, there are different—more relevant—ways to communicate, if you focus on narrower niches.

This is another reason why personas have come into focus for many companies. If marketing effectiveness is based on driving engagement and momentum throughout the buying process, then connecting with leads and customers on meaningful levels is critical. And that's not a one-size-fits-all equation.

It's also why one-off content efforts don't work over the long-term and why developing a thoughtful, distributed communications strategy with impact goals can deliver better results than you'd get otherwise.

If you'd like to read the whole story about Howard Moskowitz, Malcolm Gladwell wrote it. Click here and scroll down to #2. Shawn at Anecdote has a video of Gladwell telling the story. It's really pretty fascinating.

February 18, 2008

Marketing storytelling has different uses at different times. In order to catch more than momentary attention, you want to nurture your prospects through their buying stages. And, each stage has different requirements to meet prospect needs. By tuning your content to meet the requirements of each stage, you can progressively transition your leads into customers.

In the beginning stage, the buyer knows they have a problem to solve (or at least thinks they do) and is looking to educate themselves about the issues, unveil the opportunities available by addressing them and better understand the ramifications of the problem itself. This is when stories that educate—without a sales pitch—are appreciated. Educational content gives you a platform for exposing your company's expertise and differentiating factors.

During the educational phase, your buyers don't want to know that much about your company. That's won't be important until they've actually become interested enough in what you provide to put you on the short list. As there are always many options for how to solve every problem, buyers will be casting the net wide to learn about best practices and innovative possibilities. B2B vendors hate this part, but buyers do want to know a price range that tells them if they're in the budget ball park before they spend time, only to be disappointed later.

After your potential buyer has enough information to decide to take action, then they start to research more deeply to decide which option [and vendor] is a viable choice for them. This is when dramatizing your product's benefits can help you transition the prospect to a qualified lead. This is because instead of making claims like "Our breakthrough product employs the latest in cutting-edge technology." your marketing story is going to be told in such a compelling way that you'll never say that type of thing once. And, your buyers will draw that conclusion themselves.

Once your prospects journey to this point, customer stories and testimonials can help validate the buyer's belief that your product does indeed accomplish the result they have already "concluded" it does.

Only after your company makes the vendor short list, does the buyer really want to know in depth about your company's values, financial stability and customer service behavior—in essence, what it will be like to work with your company, moving forward.

It's not just which content you tune to use at which stage, but how you tell the story that creates momentum to transition your potential customers through their buying stages. Content, used creatively, facilitates customer acquisition outcomes.

February 17, 2008

Marketers talk about how many "touches" it takes to generate awareness. Which basically means the person has to respond. Otherwise we won't know that they've got awareness. But, what is it that causes the reaction?

In the course of helping companies run nurturing campaigns, I've been watching how an audience responds. Which is what happens when they "hear" you. Sometimes this takes one communication, sometimes five, or even many more.

When you look at who responds to what, think about what's different. When everything sounds like blah, blah, yada, blah, then it's all the same. Kind of a garbage in, garbage out mentality. But, when something "sounds" different, then you catch their attention. You've broken their status quo for your type of communications.

Motivating your audience to move out of inertia, beyond current sentiment, is the requirement for generating productive interactions. Research indicates that new and exciting experiences can rejuvenate relationships. (Okay, personal ones, but why shouldn't that also be true for business ones?) Getting people to "hear" your marketing communications means they've got to be outside their norm.

Think about trying the following:

Shake up their interpretation of your reputation. This doesn't have to be a jumping-off-the-cliff thing, but what could you do that would stay within brand, but put a new spin on perception? To alter exactly how they think about you.

State your intentions - and have them be beneficial for the audience. (hints: don't try to sell anything, it's not about your product, either.)

Give them a new reason for urgency that entices them to be proactive. This doesn't mean a limited-time offer. Think about triggers that could have impact your audience needs to (and may not) know about. And make it about the opportunity.

Talk about an elusive impact. If everyone else is talking about cutting costs, what can you talk about increasing that's more compelling - and perhaps unexpected?

How easy can you make it for them to "get" that something critical has shifted? Sometimes less is more. How few words can you use to tell this story? Make sure they're as different as your idea. If you're still using the words everyone else is, I'm hearing blah, blah, yada, blah.

February 15, 2008

Sometimes I'm not sure companies realize that everything they do plays into their brand perception. I've seen a variety of companies who were so obsessed with their competitors that it drove them to try everything they could to be "just like" them.

They'd spend hours pouring over their competitor's website, marketing efforts, advertising choices, etc. and then try to create something similar for themselves. The problem with this train of thinking is that their competitor's brand is probably already connected in people's minds with that story.

As a simplified example: If you hear "Mary had a little lamb, it's fleece was white as snow..." And then you hear "Jenny had a little lamb, it's fleece was brown as dirt..." Where does your mind go? You know "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and I'll bet you that story becomes predominant and everything Jenny and her brown lamb do will be compared to the Mary story.

When your company comes along trying to tell the same story as #1 it creates conflict in the mind of the customer. They will keep trying to reconcile your story to the predominant story. Since they've already connected that story to the leading brand in your industry, you're just helping them get more attention. Plus, they'll consider your company an also ran or a wannabe.

Even worse, they will probably consider your emulative ideas as further endorsement that your competitor is the right choice. Well, hey, why else would you want to be "just like" them?

You have a better option.

I haven't run into a company yet who doesn't have a distinct "essence" or advantage that differentiates them from their competitors. That story may be buried deep within your company, but you need to find it. With products at all levels becoming commodities, the biggest opportunity you have on your side is capitalizing on what makes your company unique and different, highlighting that expertise—and the value it brings to your customers.

If you can't put your finger on whatever this secret sauce is, go ask your customers. They chose you, not your competitor. They're still with you and haven't switched to the competition. If you weren't providing something valuable to your customers, they wouldn't stick around. And don't blame price. If you're delivering added value (customer perception), it's never just about price.

Now, all that said, this doesn't mean you can ignore your competitors. Keep track of them. Watch what they're doing and then put your own spin on new ideas their programs generate. Every story your company tells needs to solidify your brand by showcasing its difference. We can all learn by example without having to be "just like" anyone else.

February 11, 2008

It's not news that women are the largest segment of the buying market. They have controlled a whole lot of purchasing power for a long time. What is news is how to connect with them in meaningful ways as related to brand. And, here's a hint, it's not "one size fits all."

Kelly McCormick has a new article out, Women Buy Brands: What do you sell her?, that gives some key insights to positioning your brand to meet women's needs. For those of you working on persona development, these tips should be incorporated into your thinking.

One of the things that Kelly learned from research done by marketing communications company, Frank About Women, is that "A cross-section of women cited looking for "brands that integrate with [their]
reality, instead of trying to change it."

I wrote about this concept recently in Continuity Impacts Status Quo. It's nice to see that there's research that backs up the idea, although I digress.

Kelly points out some additional keys to transparency and authenticity that you'll want to pay attention to when you develop your strategy for selling to women.

Don't just paint your brand pink - make sure there's substance there. This is kind of similar to the concept a lot of companies took in trying to sell enterprise versions of products to the SMB market.

Make sure your brand is there for her - this goes to "getting" your customer and walking the walk you're talking.

Dare to be a full-body brand - prove it - this means in your content, your community support and your attitude.

Now, you're probably wondering where the "multi-minding" part comes in. Women are busier than ever these days. In another article by Kelly, she quotes a survey by Ketchum, a leading global PR firm, “The average woman in this group[aged 25-54] mentally juggles a constant mix of career,
family, and self-care decisions at any one moment.” Ketchum has even invented a
new word to describe her mental balancing act. No longer does a woman just
multitask her way through life; today she has so many details to look after that
she is now “multi-minding.”

For those of you who have women as a target market, these tips should give you some added food for thought - calories optional. Although, when you really think about it, this is good advice for connecting with any market.

In Friday's post, I showcased an interview with Joe Pulizzi about Junta42 and why it's an important resource to marketers interested in developing their skills in content marketing and custom publishing.

Today, The Web Business Marketing Blog has followed up the interview with a more in depth article that takes Joe's definition of content marketing and expands it in relation to market needs and reputation management.

One of the most important considerations of content marketing is the ability to put the customer first. Another is to accept and embrace that content marketing is not an occasional shot in the dark at producing an article, but an ongoing and consistent activity that works to position your organization as an expert in solving issues that your customers have top-of-mind urgency around handling.

The point that Hans makes in his article is that content marketing without an integrated strategy and a long-term commitment will not have a directed and measurable impact. There's also a distinction between content marketing and advertising that needs to be made, and he points to the expansion of media opportunities for custom publishing in the future.

It's important to grasp the nuances that set content marketing apart from last gen marketing. Which makes me stop and think about why I labeled it "last gen" marketing. Last gen marketing is product oriented. It speaks about the vendor's accomplishments instead of the customers'. It berates us with problems and negativity, instead of talking about opportunities and helping us envision our futures—once we've solved the issue (using your products). Content marketing is the sharing of educational and expertise information that embraces the viewpoint of the customer—and their needs—through the way you tell the story.

For additional insights, go read the article. Content marketing is pretty much the price of admission for catching the attention of your leads and reinforcing the loyalty of your customers. You may already be doing it, but haven't realized there's a growing practice around its execution.

February 08, 2008

Joe Pulizzi is the master mind and Chief Content Officer behind Junta42 - the new community site that's all about content marketing and custom publishing for marketers. With their recent posting of the Junta42 Top Blogs list for content marketing insights, and the site formally coming out of beta, I thought it was time we got to know a bit more about what Junta 42 is all about.

What is content marketing?

Joe Pulizzi (JP): Content marketing is the idea that businesses can and should be their own publishers. Technology, as well as significant changes in buyer behavior, has given businesses the opportunity to communicate directly with their customers without going through the media as distributors. Content marketing isn't just any content though...it is the creation of valuable content that meets the informational needs of the target audience. By delivering meaningful content on a continuous basis, businesses are positioned as thought leaders, experts and solutions providers for their customers.

Which marketers does Junta42 aim to bring together?

JP: We are trying to create a place where marketing professionals of all shapes and sizes can learn and interact with other marketers who believe that content marketing should be a significant part of their business model. Junta42 was created out of a frustration of the lack of educational sites around the creation of great business content. There have always been sites out there to help distribute and market, but simply not enough about bringing the content equation together.

Why do these marketers need an application like Junta42?

JP:The biggest complement we've heard from marketers is that they don't feel alone any more. Also, marketing professionals are now saying, "Yes, we've been focusing on content marketing, we just didn't know what to call it." Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that businesses can't market the way they used to. Buyers today are smarter and technology is better. In order to engage our customers, we need to give them information to help make them smarter - to help make their lives better. Businesses can't just sell products anymore, they must provide solid, consistent, educational information.

What's been the return on Junta42 for you so far?

JP: When we launched the site, the plan was to work to create a community around content marketing, and it's all beginning to come together. We wanted to do that first before we launched any "revenue-generating" products. We've turned down advertising to this point as well - it's too important for us right now to just get the community going. Content marketing is just starting to catch on - and we are glad to be a part of it. This practice is just way too important.

Is 'digg for content marketing' an accurate description for Junta42?

JP: Technically, we are probably somewhere between a social media and a business bookmarking site, but "content marketing community" probably best describes it. As we continue to launch new products and initiatives, we'll probably end up looking like more of a media site than anything else.

What makes Junta42 unique? What about alternatives such as vertical groups in diigo, blinklist or simpy, beetoobee, ...?

JP: Those are all good sites and serve different purposes, but we are the only ones that really focus on the practice and evolution of content marketing - how to create it, distribute it, market it, and measure it. We may be close to sites like marketingprofs or even BtoB magazine, we just happen promote the social media aspect of content more.

What does Junta42 offer that these alternatives don't?

JP: Other than the above, it will be the continual focus on just content marketing and nothing else. Those other sites get into all aspects of business information and marketing...we are working to keep a laser focus on business content and the marketing of it as the future of marketing communications.

Why should content marketers and custom publishers engage in Junta42?

JP: We are the only online location that can bring these two business groups together. With the launch of Junta42 Match this spring, marketing professionals will have the only place where they can find the perfect match for their business content needs. For custom publishers, new business is the most challenging part of the business. We believe that Junta42 Match will be the perfect place for custom publishers to find opportunities to help businesses generate the best outcomes from their content marketing initiatives.

How will the Junta42 project be sustainable in the long run?

JP:Junta42 Match will be the revenue component to the business (free to marketing professionals, a paid service for publishers who wish to be a part of the system). Over the next 12 to 18 months we will be launching premium educational initiatives for both marketers and custom publishers, which will continue to grow the business. Other than that, we'll continue to have fun trying new things to solve the challenges of today's marketing professional.

If there's anything else you'd like to know about Junta42, post your questions and I'm sure Joe will be happy to answer them. If you haven't checked it out, now's your chance.

In case you don't have it yet, Joe has also co-written an eBook Get Content, Get Customers, which can be downloaded free from the Junta42 blog - so go get a copy.

Coming January 2015

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